Tech Mahindra Asia

Part of India's US$6.7 billion
Mahindra Group, a massive and multifarious conglomerate, Tech
Mahindra's story began in 1986 when British Telecom (now known as
BT Group) and Mahindra established a joint venture called
Mahindra-British Telecom (MBT). Undergoing a name change and an IPO
in 2006, Tech Mahindra Limited is now an international leader in IT
services and solutions for the global telecommunications industry.
Headquartered in Pune and with locations all over India, the firm
also has offices throughout Asia Pacific and Europe, as well as
outposts in the U.S., Canada, Egypt and the United Arab
Emirates.

Tech Mahindra continues as a
joint venture between Mahindra and BT, and is one of three Mahindra
Group companies operating in the IT sector; its siblings include
SAP-allied supply chain consulting firm Bristlecone and IT
solutions firm Mahindra Logisoft. Employing over 24,900 people in
24 offices worldwide, the firm is one of the largest IT solutions
companies in India, and the largest focused on the
telecommunications industry. BT remains a key client, inking a
US$700 million tech outsourcing deal with the firm in July
2008-bringing
BT's total orders to over US$2 billion in total. The British
giant is also a major
shareholder in Tech Mahindra, controlling 31 percent of the
company's stock. Other big telecom clients include AT&T,
Alcatel and Vodafone.

Following Tech Mahindra's
April 2009 acquisition of a controlling stake in fallen-from-grace
Satyam Computer Services (which was subsequently rebranded in June
2009 as Mahindra Satyam), the firm became even more of a titan in
tech consulting and outsourcing, adding another 40,000 staff under
its umbrella.

Business
breakdown

Tech Mahindra's three primary
business lines are IT services, research and development (R&D)
services, and business process outsourcing (BPO). IT services is
subdivided into offerings including solution integration services,
application development and management, consulting, managed
services and infrastructure management services. Within consulting,
the firm aims to provide businesses with effective implementation
of software solutions through strategy planning, assessment,
procurement, re-engineering solutions, audits and more.

The massive Mahindra empire
began with one man's inspiration. K.C. Mahindra, chairman of the
India Supply Mission, traveled to the U.S. during World War II.
There, he met Barney Roos, the man who invented the Jeep. When
Mahindra saw Roos' handiwork, he realized the rugged vehicle would
be a perfect method of transportation in India's rural towns, where
roads were rudimentary (or nonexistent). Mahindra asked his
brother, J.C., to help him bring Jeeps to India; they were joined
by a partner, Ghulam Mohammed. Mahindra & Mohammad was
established in 1945 as a franchise for making Jeeps out of parts
sent from America. Two years later, the Mahindra brothers took
control of the company and renamed Mahindra &
Mahindra.

In the annals of Indian
business history, it is said that the brothers Mahindra were
pioneers of what's now known as globalization. As early as the
1950s, Mahindra had British and German engineers on its staff, and
contracted with international auto manufacturers like Mitsubishi,
Chrysler, Willys and Perrine. The company went public in 1956 on
the Bombay Stock Exchange, and branched out over the next few
decades into numerous forays such as steel, chemicals, elevators,
machine tools and a wide variety of vehicles. Mahindra made its
initial entry into the IT sector in 1986, when Tech Mahindra was
launched as a joint venture with British Telecom.